1. Field of the Invention
The instant disclosure relates to a method for capturing images; in particular, to a method for capturing images and obtaining object depth information in the images or photos.
2. Description of Related Art
Images obtained through conventional camera typically convert three dimensional scenes into two dimensional planes, and the naked eye can easily determine whether objects in the images are far or near based on past experience, and deduce the dimensions of other objects and the approximate distances from which the known objects are located based on the dimensions of the known objects. However, to directly determine the depth or relative distance between objects in the image is a quite a hurdle.
Typically for devices or software, additional devices such as laser rangefinder, infrared rangefinder, radar, acoustic, ultrasonic, etc are needed for auxiliary detection. However, laser or infrared rangefinders are limited to detect depth information by a single point or to a certain region, while the radar, acoustics, or supersonic, which are required to use a mechanical scanner in order to cover the entire area, have relatively poorer resolution.
Time-of-flight (ToF) camera are developed to overcome the single point or regional limitations, however, since the Time-of-flight camera detects object depth by measuring the time required for a specific signal light source (i.e. infrared beam) to reflect from the object back to the camera, if the ToF camera is applied outdoors, the light source is adversely affected by the ambient light source, such as sun rays, thus, leading to inaccurate testing results.
Moreover, although additional information can be used to calculate the object depth (the relative distance between the camera and the objects), i.e. to simulate the structure of the human eyes, the relative distance between two cameras can be used to calculate the object depth, however, the existing technology requires two or more cameras and the relative distances between those cameras must be accurately fixed, thus, making the image processing relatively complex. Thus, it is necessary to provide a method to detect object depth in image signals or photos while simultaneously provide accurate information.
To address the above issues, the inventor strives via associated experience and research to present the instant disclosure, which can effectively improve the limitation described above.